The present disclosure relates to an ink-jet recording apparatus that performs recording by ejecting ink onto a recording medium such as a paper sheet, more particularly, to: a recovery system for a recording head that forcibly pushes out ink from an ejecting nozzle of the recording head, thereafter, wipes away the purged ink adhering to an ink ejecting surface by means of a wiper; and to an ink-jet recording apparatus that includes the recovery system.
As recording apparatuses such as a facsimile, a copy machine, a printer, ink-jet recording apparatuses which form an image by ejecting ink are widely used because they can form a high-definition image.
In such ink-jet recording apparatuses, there is a case where deterioration (curved fly) in linear traveling of ink, failed ink ejection and the like occur and printing performance of the recording head declines. As a cause of this, occurrence of a meniscus trouble is conceivable which is caused by that foreign mater such as paper powder, dust and debris occurring during a sheet (recording medium) conveyance time, a minuscule ink drop (hereinafter, called a mist) ejected along with an ink drop for image recording, and a bouncing mist, which occurs when the ink drop adheres to the recording medium, adheres to the ink ejecting surface of the recording head. Besides, decline in sealing performance during a cap mounting time caused by that the mist adheres to a cap mounting place and dries and occurrence of increased viscosity of the ink in the nozzle due to the sealing performance decline are also conceivable.
Because of this, a structure is used, in which to prevent: the drying of ink in the ejecting nozzle whose opening is formed through the ink ejecting surface of the recording head; and clogging of the nozzle caused by the thickened ink in the ejecting nozzle, the ink is forcibly pushed out (purged) from the nozzle, thereafter, the purged ink adhering to the ink ejecting surface (nozzle surface) is wiped away by means of a wiper to perform a recording head recovery process.
For example, a method is known, in which a wiper is pressed at a predetermined contact pressure against a portion of an ink ejecting surface of a recording head, where there is not a nozzle, to clean the ink ejecting surface. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 35A, a wiper 103 is pressed substantially perpendicularly to a region (wiping start position) outside a nozzle region 102, where ejecting nozzles are disposed, of an ink ejecting surface 101a of a recording head 101. Next, as shown in FIG. 35B, FIG. 35C, the wiper 103 is horizontally moved along the ink ejecting surface 101a in an arrow A direction to wipe away ink 104 on the nozzle region 102, and as shown in FIG. 35D, after the wiper 103 is made to leave the ink ejecting surface 101a, the wiper 103 is horizontally moved in an arrow A′ direction and returned to the wiping start position.
But, according to the method shown in FIG. 35A to FIG. 35D, as shown in FIG. 36A, inks 104a, 104b respectively adhere to a side surface and tip end of the wiper 103 during a second wiping time. The inks 104a, 104b adhering to the side surface and tip end of the wiper 103 are exposed to air to become high in viscosity, and adhere to the ink ejecting surface 101a as shown in FIG. 36B and FIG. 36C.
As described above, the wiping operation is repeated, whereby the ink 104b collects gradually near the wiping start position to form a large ink puddle. And, there is a disadvantage that this ink puddle falls on or contact the recording medium passing under the ink ejecting surface 101a to dirty a print surface.
To improve the disadvantage, a wiping mechanism for an ink-jet recording apparatus is known, which has two wipers that can successively contact the ink ejecting surface of the recording head wherein the preceding wiper wipes away the purged ink and the following wiper wipes away ink that remains near a wiping start position of the preceding wiper.